Easy Vegan Challah (Single Loaf Recipe)
This easy to follow recipe will provide you with a fluffy loaf of challah for your shabbat celebrations (or to add something special to your week). Add your favorite toppings and fillings to create a challah that's uniquely yours!
Servings: 1 challot
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour plus more for kneading
- ⅔ cups water warm
- 3 tbsp water warm
- ¼ cup sugar plus a dash more
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp dry active yeast
- ½ tsp salt
- non-dairy milk
- maple syrup
- toppings as needed
Instructions
- Mix the sugar, oil, salt, and ⅔ cup water in a large bowl until everything is dissolved. Using warm water helps.
- In a separate bowl sprinkle the yeast over the 3 tbsp water. Sprinkle a dash of sugar on top. Set aside for at least 5 minutes until foamy looking.
- In the large bowl, add 1 cup of flour and mix. All the clumps may not go away. It’s okay, you can go on to the next step!
- Add about ½ cup of flour and the yeast mixture to the large bowl and mix.
- Slowly continue adding flour. As your mixture becomes thicker, add the flour more and more slowly. Add flour until the dough only slightly sticks to your hands.
- Knead the dough with your hands in the bowl at first for approximately 5 minutes. You’ll need to coat your hands with flour as needed, and continue reapplying the flour throughout so that the dough remains only slightly sticky to the touch. Then transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes more.
- Alternatively, you can knead in a stand mixer using the dough hook for 10 minutes on a medium setting.
- Transfer the dough back to the bowl (make sure it is lightly floured). Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and cover with a damp washcloth. Let is rise until doubled in size, for at least 30 minutes.
- After the dough has risen, preheat your over to 350 degrees F. Transfer your dough back to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 3 equal balls of dough.
- Roll the dough balls into strips between your hands.- If you are going to stuff the challah, create a divet in the dough with your fingers down the center of each strip that you are going to fill.- Fill the divet with your selected topping and then pinch the edges of the dough together to close the dough.
- Braid the strips together by placing them side by side. Take the three ends of each of the strips and bring them together while the other ends are angled outwards.
- Bring the outside strip on the right to the middle of the other two strips. Then, bring the outside strip on the left to the middle of the other two. Repeat until you've braided all the way down. Fix the ends of the challah by braiding and tucking the ends underneath the loaf.
- Place the challah on a parchment paper lined tray. Cover the loaves with hand towels and let rise until doubled in size and puffy, at least 30 minutes.
- Put your tray in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.
- While your challah is in the oven, create the wash for the top of the challah by mixing equal parts non-dairy milk with maple syrup.
- After the 20 minutes, remove the challah from the oven and wash with the mixture you created. As you are placing the wash, place your toppings on top, using the wash as a sticky surface for your toppings.
- Place the tray back in the oven for 20-30 more minutes, until golden brown and a fork placed in between the braids comes out clean. Another method you can try is tapping the bottom of the challah and seeing if it sounds hollow.
- Once your challah is done, let it rest on the tray for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
Alternatively, you can allow your dough to rise in the fridge overnight after braiding. This allows you to split the process in half so it’s less time all at once and it allows your dough to rise a little longer. The only difference is instead of covering with hand towels, you’ll cover with aluminum foil and put it in the fridge. Then follow the instructions the same way.
Some fun toppings that I've used in the past include: sprinkles, cookie butter, vegan beef & cheese, rosemary & garlic, apple & cinnamon, cinnamon sugar, and lemon poppyseed. The sky is the limit when it comes to challah flavors - get creative!
For basically five years I pretty much ate challah right out of the oven. And then I had a day where I had to let it cool for some reason and couldn't eat it right away. And y'all, challah is EVEN BETTER when you let it cool completely first. You can always reheat it in the oven (350 degrees F for 7-10 minutes, wrapped in foil) if you like your bread warm.